Dr Asangba Tzudir
Clean election has been a much mulled over topic for some time now and it has generated mixed feelings, divided between optimism and pessimism. Optimism comes from the overwhelming chorus that cries for change. However, pessimism quickly takes precedence looking at the current state of messy affairs, that, it seems easier for a camel to go through the eye of the needle than to clean the system.
For now the words ‘clean’ and ‘election’ needs to break-up and the word ‘clean’ first needs to be addressed separately before studying Clean Election in totality. So, what does it mean to be ‘clean?’ Besides other considerations, being ‘clean’ should find its right place within our ‘moral selves.’ And for morality to manifest, our moral selves needs to be awakened within a framework, a guiding principle that will help strengthen our morality. The idea of the clean needs to be nurtured and strengthened by clear notions of what is ‘good’ and ‘bad’, right and wrong, and what is ‘desirable’ and ‘undesirable’. The nurturing process should be guided by reason and the various experiences through our faculty of ‘moral and practical judgment.’
However, the frailty of the human nature is such that ‘weakness of the will’ is there to play its own deceiving game where one simply acts contrary to the better judgment knowing fully well that one could have done otherwise. The contest between reason and weakness of will is something that will exist and only attests to the human frailty of moral judgments. However, it is something which the human selves should work upon continuously in order to strengthen ones moral judgment towards doing what is right, good and the desirable.
Now having a moral framework, the other word election with all its rules and regulations needs to be juxtaposed with the idea of the word clean build within a moral framework. The challenge being that, we always lurk in the danger of falling into the same old systems trap and thereby the need for a new and desirable process based on the idea of the clean.
Bringing the two words together, ‘Clean election’ is often understood as a right. However, it is not a right, but an exercise of our moral selves as a responsible citizen. The idea of responsibility can translate into action only when the human self is build upon a moral framework because it is morality that gives impetus to be responsible.
Having said about the morally guiding framework, a collective responsibility within the larger understanding of a ‘coming community’ is thus paramount. A coming community is one that decides to be clean with a strong desire for change. We need to broaden the horizons of our moral compass in understanding the ‘moral ought’ and the predicament that makes each of us a human being – a moral being. Thus to be moral and be clean is not simply a responsibility but a duty governed by a ‘moral ought.’
For the ‘dream’ of a ‘coming community,’ the communities need to come together having a sense of a value-oriented community where each individual understands what it means to be a human – as a morally responsible human seeking to embark on a mission towards a peoples’ government and for the collective good of our society.
Clean election is not a ‘right in itself’ but a ‘responsibility’ bound by duty and thereby begs the question – Are we willing to come together as a morally renewed community, and thereby the ‘coming community’ with a pledge to be responsible?
(Dr Asangba Tzudir contributes a weekly guest editorial to The Morung Express. Comments can be emailed to asangtz@gmail.com)
